Did God Forget?

Vital Health Laws Not in the Bible

Did God Just Forget?

Cardiovascular Exercise

Hand Washing

According to the Bible, God is perfect (Matt 5:48), and the Bible is one of his perfect works (Ps 19:7, Deut 32:4, Matt 5:18), so it should cover all essential health information. For something to be perfect, it must be complete. Would it be a perfect book if believers got sick or died from failing to follow basic health laws that could easily have been revealed in the Bible? Did God leave his followers to learn from experience (i.e. through sickness, disease, and death) basic laws that could have kept them healthy?

Essential health information the Bible should contain would include any health law, which if not kept, can result in sickness, death or shortened life expectancy, and which could not have been known before modern science except by divine revelation.

Because I have read the Bible for many years and am not aware of where the following information is in the Bible, I are sure that many of the vital health laws below are missing from its pages. If any reader can find where any of these are clearly stated in the Bible, please let me know and I will remove it from this list.

Some of these might seem so obvious to us today we might assume that everybody knew them. But many of these things were not known until relatively recently on the historical timescale. We can't assume ancient Israel already knew these things and that they did not need to be revealed. Millions of people have died from illnesses that could have been prevented by keeping some the measures below.

Here are some health laws that are not in the Bible. The reader can probably think of more.

Health Law Not Found in the Bible	Comment
Wash hands before touching eyes, nose or mouth.	Helps prevent respiratory illnesses including flus and colds.
Get some cardiovascular exercise three times a week.	Leads to a longer life and more vigor.
Remove the skin from chicken before eating it.	Cuts down on fat intake.
Don't eat too much butter.	Consists mostly of saturated fat (the worst kind).
Limit salt intake.	Helps prevent high blood pressure.
Get enough fiber in your diet.	Reduces risk of heart disease and alleviates constipation.
Keep flies off of food.	Doubtless more important than "Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk." (Exo 23:19).
Dispose of garbage properly to avoid flies, fleas, and ticks.
Keep mice out of food.	Would probably do more for health than avoiding shellfish (as required in Lev 11).
Don't eat too many sweets (including honey).	Important for dental and overall health.
Eat from each of the food groups every day.	The seven different food groups are carbohydrates, dairy, fats, fiber, minerals, protein, and vitamins.
Get enough fresh air.	One of the seven laws of good health, according to H.W. Armstrong.
Eat fruits.	"The knowledge that consuming foods containing vitamin C is a cure for scurvy has been repeatedly rediscovered and reforgotten into the early 20th century." (Wikipedia, Scurvy, Nov 10, 2010). Sounds like something that should have been in the Bible.
Don't eat too many eggs.	Applies even to chicken farmers.
Brush and floss your teeth.	Especially important when dentistry was rudimentary and anaesthetics were unknown. Getting drunk to dull the pain was prohibited (Eph 5:18).
Wash hands after handling raw flesh (e.g. cleaning fish, chicken, etc).	Prevents disease.
Eat a balanced diet.	Don't take for granted that they already knew this.
Cook meats thoroughly.	Can be fatal if not followed.
Don't overcook meat.	Can be unhealthy.
Cook eggs thoroughly.	Protects against Salmonella which can be fatal.
Wash hands and utensils before eating.	Helps prevent disease. Jesus dismissed it as a mere "tradition of men" (Mark 7:1-9).
Use soap when washing hands.	Helps prevent disease.
Wash hands before preparing food.	Helps prevent disease.
Cover your mouth when sneezing.	Not doing so can spread disease.
Wash hands after going to the toilet.	Always a good idea.
Don't sneeze on food.	Diseases can be transmitted by airbourne droplets.
Don't put on too much weight.	Eli was "heavy" but was he corrected for it? (I Sam 4:18).

Some churches believe the Bible was written for our time, and that great diseases are prophesied to soon spread across the earth, so it's a wonder the Bible does not tell us more about how to prevent disease. Instead we are largely left to rely on science for this information.

If physical sin is anything that makes us sick (as some churches believe), and physical sin is the transgression of physical law, why did God fail to tell us about many things that could make us sick? That would mean that he failed to tell us what sin is.

It is highly significant that Jesus dismissed washing hands and eating utensils as a mere "tradition of men" (Mark 7:1-9). From the Wikipedia article Hand Washing we read:

People can become infected with respiratory illnesses such as influenza or the common cold, for example, if they don't wash their hands before touching their eyes, nose or mouth. Indeed, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated: "It is well-documented that one of the most important measures for preventing the spread of pathogens is effective hand washing." As a general rule, handwashing protects people poorly or not at all from droplet- and airborne diseases, such as measles, chickenpox, influenza, and tuberculosis. It protects best against diseases transmitted through fecal-oral routes (such as many forms of stomach flu) and direct physical contact (such as impetigo).

In addition to hand washing with soap and water, the use of alcohol gels is an effective form of killing some kinds of pathogens. (Wikipedia Hand Washing, copied Nov 10, 2010).

What about the proper care and handling of pets and livestock? This is a whole area the Bible is almost silent on. For example, some pets (e.g. rabbits) are disease carriers. Also, it seems that an agricultural society like Old Testament Israel would need at least a few good animal health laws for taking care of livestock. The Bible says "a righteous man regardeth the life of his beast" (Pro. 12:10) but doesn't say much about how that is to be accomplished. It says to not touch a dead carcase but it does not tell us how to keep livestock from becoming deadstock in the first place.

Some will object to the statement that the Bible does not teach us that we need cardiovascular exercise. They will refer to I Timothy 4:8 which says "bodily exercise profiteth little". Some interpret this to mean we should exercise. But it could also be interpreted to discourage exercise, since it says that exercise is of little value. It certainly does not command bodily exercise. Even if it did, this verse does not say what kind of exercise we should do. It does not say cardiovascular exercise. It could be referring to muscle-building or stretching exercises. Would it not be far better if the Bible had clearly said we should engage in cardiovascular exercise?

Consider mushrooms. Some mushrooms are toxic but the Bible does not say to avoid mushrooms. It is very difficult to tell some toxic mushrooms from non-toxic ones. Mushroom toxins can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, shaking, hallucinations, coma or death. To protect our health, why doesn't the Bible forbid all mushrooms or tell us how to recognize the ones that are safe? And why didn't God make it easier to tell which ones are safe? For example, he could have made all the toxic ones a certain color, perhaps red. Just a few words in the Bible—"don't eat mushrooms" or "don't eat red mushrooms" would have been sufficient.

In Ex 3:8 God promised the Israelites a land "flowing with milk and honey." This expression is used often. The impression is that one can eat almost unlimited amounts of honey. Despite this, the Bible, for all its supposed advanced nutritional wisdom, does not warn people about the dangers to teeth or overall health of eating too much honey. The only restriction is that eating so much at once until "filled" with it will cause vomiting (Proverbs 25:16, 27), an observation that hardly required divine revelation. Honey is composed almost entirely of sugars and water. Typically honey is about 79% sugar, 17% water, and 4% other substances. Other than the water content, it is almost pure sugar.

What about putting on too much weight? The Bible does not seem to forbid this for health reasons. It warns that "the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags" (Prov 23:21). But the context in that verse shows it is talking about financial issues, it does not say getting fat is unhealthy. Eli the top priest was "heavy" (I Sam 4:18). Was he corrected for it? (He also did not come to poverty.)

There are many important basic health laws missing from the Bible (e.g. handwashing) that we now know have a greater impact on health than some of those which are in the Bible. Dietary laws like "thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk" (Deut 14:21) appear to be totally useless. Why would a perfect book include useless health laws and omit vital ones?

By the way, "thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk" does not seem to be either a spiritual law, a health law, or even a ritualistic law. Rituals tell us what to do, usually on a regular basis; they don't tell us what not to do. So I don't see how "thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk" can be a ritual. It's clearly not spiritual. So what's the point? The Churches of God (COGs) say the dietary laws of Deut 14 are health laws, and this instruction appears in Deut 14, so they should be able to explain the health reasons for it, but can they?

If the Bible is a perfect book why do the health laws in the Bible mention the obvious like "eating too much honey will make one vomit" and (to my knowledge) omit telling us useful tips like alcohol can kill germs or that boiling water can make it safe to drink? Instead what it provides is an incomplete assortment of rules, some useful, some useless, some arbitrary, but none of which show any evidence of divine insight.

Note: The Bible does speak of washing. For example Psalm 51:7 says "Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." However, that does not say wash hands after going to the toilet or before eating. Where does it say to wash hands after going to the toilet or before eating?

Note: The Bible does say to use moderation, but that doesn't tell us how much is too much. We don't really know how much salt, alcohol, or butter our bodies can handle without knowledge from nutritional science. The same goes for many other foods.